{"id":2290677,"date":"2024-07-08T16:00:02","date_gmt":"2024-07-08T20:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-administration-plans-to-kill-hundreds-of-thousands-of-owls\/"},"modified":"2024-07-08T16:07:43","modified_gmt":"2024-07-08T20:07:43","slug":"biden-administration-plans-to-kill-hundreds-of-thousands-of-owls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-administration-plans-to-kill-hundreds-of-thousands-of-owls\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden Administration Plans To Kill Hundreds Of Thousands Of Owls"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbiden-administration-plans-to-kill-hundreds-of-thousands-of-owls%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2290677&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The Associated Press reported that federal officials are planning to deploy state-employed hunters to kill nearly half a million barred owls across \u2063the Pacific\u200b Northwest in the name of conservation. The Fish and\u2064 Wildlife Service will target\u2063 owls in Oregon, Washington, and California, with only certain groups permitted to participate in the mass execution of the\u2062 birds. This controversial plan has\u200d divided \u2064wildlife advocates and conservationists, drawing parallels to other environmental efforts \u200bthat sacrifice one species for the benefit of another, such as the destruction of forests for solar fields and the potential harm to whales from\u200c <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/governors-using-federal-coronavirus-funds-to-fight-climate-change\/\" title=\"Governors Using Federal Coronavirus Funds to Fight \u2018Climate Change\u2019\">offshore wind projects<\/a>. The government&#8217;s owl program has also been criticized \u200cfor the impact it may have on the logging industry and the communities it\u200b supports. William Perry Pendley, former director for \u200cthe Bureau of Land \u2062Management, disputed claims of faulty science behind the Trump administration&#8217;s decision to strip habitat protections for spotted owls, suggesting political\u200c motives were at play. \u200dthe issue highlights\u2063 the complex and contentious\u2062 nature of\u200c wildlife conservation efforts and \u200cthe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/newsom-vetoes-bill-demanding-human-safety-operators-inside-autonomous-trucks\/\" title=\"Newsom rejects bill requiring human safety operators in self-driving trucks.\">trade-offs involved<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-passes-resolutions-curtailing-protections-for-two-endangered-species\/\" title=\"House approves measures limiting protections for endangered species.\">protecting endangered species<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The Associated Press <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/shooting-barred-owls-wildlife-service-9081f926f3ebd27ac3ddc2ceaf332ca2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported <\/a>last week that federal officials are preparing to deploy state-employed hunters to kill nearly half a million owls across the Pacific Northwest in the name of \u201cconservation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cU.S. wildlife officials are embracing a contentious plan to deploy trained shooters into dense West Coast forests to kill almost a half-million barred owls that are crowding out their cousins,\u201d the AP reported. \u201cDocuments released by the agency show up to about 450,000 barred owls would be shot over three decades after the birds from the eastern U.S. encroached into the West Coast territory of two owls: northern spotted owls and California spotted owls.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Fish and Wildlife Service is targeting owls across Oregon, Washington, and California. According to an agency <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fws.gov\/press-release\/2024-07\/us-fish-and-wildlife-service-releases-final-environmental-impact-statement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">press release<\/a>, no public hunting of the barred owls will be permitted while the government carries out the mass execution of roughly half a million birds. Only certain indigenous tribes, government agencies, and select companies and landowners will be granted permission to \u201cimplement barred owl management\u201d under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBarred owl removal, like all invasive species management, is not something the Service takes lightly,\u201d said Service Oregon Office state supervisor Kessina Lee. \u201cThe Service has a legal responsibility to do all it can to prevent the extinction of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/feds-want-migratory-bird-treaty-exemption-to-call-in-and-eradicate-american-owl-populations\/\" title=\"Feds Want Migratory Bird Treaty Exemption to Call in and Eradicate American Owl Populations\">federally listed northern spotted owl<\/a> and support its recovery, while also addressing significant threats to California spotted owls.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe notion of killing one bird species to save another has divided wildlife advocates and conservationists,\u201d the AP reported. \u201cIt\u2019s reminiscent of past government efforts to save West Coast salmon by killing sea lions and cormorants that prey on the fish, and to preserve warblers by killing cowbirds that lay eggs in warbler nests.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The government\u2019s owl program is also reminiscent of far-left environmental efforts to compromise traditional views in pursuit of favored policy goals, such as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/09\/21\/opinion\/environment\/solar-panels-virginia-climate-change.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">destruction <\/a>of forests and farmlands for solar fields or the possible killing of whales for offshore wind projects. A Harvard <a href=\"https:\/\/storymaps.arcgis.com\/stories\/932be293f1af43c8b776fdad24d9f071\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">study<\/a> reported last year \u201cthousands of acres of forests, farms, and other carbon-rich landscapes are being converted to host large-scale solar,\u201d driving up emissions as a result. And <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2023\/03\/possible-wind-energy-impact-on-whales-flips-the-environmentalist-narrative\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according<\/a> to National Review, nine whales washed up on a beach in New Jersey last year, with another 22 humpback whales stranded between December 2022 and March 2023.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMore than 180 of the animals have washed ashore dead between Maine and Virginia since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/when-the-wind-doesnt-blow-weak-breeze-lowered-u-s-turbine-output-in-2023\/\" title=\"Reduced Wind Impact: Lowered U.S. Turbine Output in 2023\">offshore-wind-energy development began<\/a> in 2016,\u201d the magazine reported. \u201cAnd those that have washed ashore may only represent a small portion of those that have died.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Massive wind operations have also\u00a0been <a href=\"https:\/\/abcbirds.org\/blog21\/wind-turbine-mortality\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">responsible <\/a>for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of birds, including federally protected <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/04\/07\/wind-power-company-fined-millions-after-it-pleads-guilty-to-killing-150-eagles\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">species<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>According to the AP, federal officials under then-President Donald Trump \u201cstripped habitat protections for spotted owls at the behest of the timber industry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose were reinstated under President Joe Biden after the Interior Department said political appointees under Trump relied on faulty science to justify their weakening of protections,\u201d the wire reported. <\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s director for the Bureau of Land Management, William Perry Pendley, called the charge \u201cnonsense\u201d in an interview with The Federalist.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s the common accusation,\u201d Pendley said of the \u201cfaulty science\u201d label slapped on the Trump administration\u2019s environmental agenda, adding \u201cI don\u2019t have any confidence\u201d in the assessment. <\/p>\n<p>Concerns over the spotted owl, Pendley explained, were used as a political instrument to terminate timber contracts throughout the Pacific Northwest. \u201cSo-called experts had to shut down timber harvesting,\u201d Pendley said, and they \u201ckilled all those communities\u201d as a result.<\/p>\n<p>A 2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2013\/05\/21\/185839248\/loss-of-timber-payments-cuts-deep-in-oregon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">article<\/a> in National Public Radio (NPR) titled, \u201cLoss Of Timber Payments Cuts Deep In Oregon,\u201d chronicled the hardships faced by residents of hollowed-out timber towns. In Josephine County, the sheriff, who was forced to lay off 80 percent of deputies, warned victims of domestic violence in a press release to \u201cconsider relocating to an area with adequate law enforcement services.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now, bureaucrats in the Biden administration have pivoted from blaming the timber industry on the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/abcbirds.org\/bird\/northern-spotted-owl\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">threatened<\/a>\u201d status of the spotted owl to pointing the finger at a rival species. \u201cA few years ago, these experts were saying \u2018it\u2019s logging,&#8217;\u201d Pendley said. \u201cNobody was saying \u2018maybe it was logging\u2019 or \u2018maybe it was the barred owl.\u2019 Now they\u2019re saying \u2018oh sorry, my bad.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s so unnecessary what they did to the logging industry,\u201d Pendley said. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/abcbirds.org\/bird\/northern-spotted-owl\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">According <\/a>to the American Bird Conservancy, just 15,000 spotted owls remain in the wild, and their population is trending downward. Pendley said officials lack numbers, however, on how many spotted owls are living in federally protected wilderness areas safe from logging, such as national parks. When career officials in the administrative state were <a href=\"https:\/\/cowboystatedaily.com\/2021\/05\/03\/william-perry-pendley-junk-science-from-the-government-wyoming-has-heard-it-before\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pressed <\/a>several decades ago on the number of owls required to save the species, the question was met with the denial of a \u201cmagic number.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pendley was succeeded at the Bureau of Land Management by Tracy Stone-Manning, a virulent opponent of the timber industry who <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/06\/14\/josh-hawley-confronts-public-lands-chief-for-lying-about-involvement-in-ecoterrorism\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">lied <\/a>about her participation in a 1989 tree spiking case during her confirmation process.\u00a0Tree spiking consists of inserting metal rods into trees.\u00a0The rods then become deadly projectiles when the trees are processed in the mill. While intended to intimidate workers in the timber industry, spiked trees have also <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/07\/02\/how-tracy-stone-manning-bidens-ecoterrorist-nominee-to-oversee-the-nations-land-put-firefighters-in-danger\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">injured firefighters<\/a> hastily working to extinguish blazes. Tree spiking was used by left-wing radicals as a form of ecoterrorism in the 1980s and 1990s.<\/p>\n<p>Stone-Manning took a plea deal with prosecutors in exchange for cooperation in the case, which the lead investigator on the case <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/07\/16\/new-details-expand-biden-nominee-tracy-stone-mannings-role-in-ecoterrorism-case\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">characterized<\/a> as \u201cextremely difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist and the author of Social Justice Redux, a conservative newsletter on culture, health, and wellness. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com. Sign up for Tristan&#8217;s email newsletter <a href=\"https:\/\/socialjusticeredux.substack.com\/about\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Associated Press recently reported that federal officials are planning to use state-employed hunters to kill around 450,000 barred owls in the Pacific Northwest in the name of conservation. The Fish and Wildlife Service is targeting owls in Oregon, Washington, and California, with only certain groups allowed to participate in the mass removal of the birds. This controversial plan has divided wildlife advocates and conservationists, with some comparing it to past efforts to save species by killing other animals. The government&#8217;s owl program is also reminiscent of other environmental efforts that have compromised traditional views in pursuit of policy goals, such as the destruction of forests for solar fields or the potential harm to whales from offshore wind projects. The Trump administration&#8217;s actions regarding habitat protections for spotted owls have also come under scrutiny, with accusations of faulty science being used to justify weakening protections. The Biden administration has shifted blame from the timber industry to the barred owl as a threat to the spotted owl population. The American Bird Conservancy reports that only 15,000 spotted owls remain in the wild, with their numbers declining. Former Bureau of Land Management director William Perry Pendley criticized the government&#8217;s handling of the situation, pointing out the impact on the logging industry and questioning the lack of data on spotted owl populations in protected areas. Pendley&#8217;s successor, Tracy Stone-Manning, has a controversial past involving a tree spiking case from 1989, which she initially lied about during her confirmation process<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":2290678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/49762184843_f71d482e94_k-e1720465307516.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[34261,32502,34260,34259,34258],"class_list":["post-2290677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-animal-rights","tag-biden-administration","tag-environmental-policies","tag-owl-protection","tag-wildlife-conservation"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/49762184843_f71d482e94_k-e1720465307516.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2290677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2290677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2290677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2290678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2290677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2290677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2290677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}